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Interview transcript

[STARTS]

Tim Benjamin: When you’re flying, does the first hint of turbulence turn you into a quivering wreck?

If so, you’ve got to check out today’s episode.

Because joining me are two of the world’s leading turbulence experts to reveal what turbulence is.

And what it means for YOU when you’re at 39,000 feet.

Hi there – I’m Tim Benjamin with the Fear of Flying School podcast.

And today, my guests are Dr Bruce Carmichael and Dr Bob Sharman from the US Government’s National Center for Atmospheric Research – otherwise known as NCAR.

To get the ball rolling, I asked Bruce to explain what NCAR does.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: National Center for Atmospheric Research – shorthand NCAR – is a Federal laboratory here in the United States.

It is an agent of the National Science Foundation – and this organization studies the atmosphere, does research and development of things all the way from space weather and the Sun down to weather forecasting, weather sensing, climate change.

And also provides facilities for universities to do research.

We have super-computers and aircraft and radars that universities use.

Tim Benjamin: And where do turbulence and aviation fit in with your remit?

Dr Bruce Carmichael: Well, the particular laboratory that Bob and I are in is called the Research Applications Lab. And our Lab focuses on real-world atmospheric problems – and trying to come up with solutions that help mitigate those problems.

So our group – the Aviation Applications Program – is really looking at atmospheric problems that affect aviation – both from a safety standpoint as well as efficiency and delay and air-space capacity and all those things that airlines and air traffic control authorities are interested in.

Tim Benjamin: So, talking about you specifically, Bruce, what do you do?

Dr Bruce Carmichael: So, I’m the Director of the Aviation Applications Program here, and we have a number of subject matter areas that we work on – turbulence being one of those.

We also do research on thunderstorms.

We do research on icing – aircraft icing, ceiling and visibility.

We do work on both domestic and oceanic kinds of problems.

And we do work on the engineering side of how you get this information out to the people who need it.

Tim Benjamin: And joining me is your colleague, Bob Sharman. Bob: can you tell me what do you do?

Dr Bob Sharman: Yes – OK – so I’ve been at this Lab for about 15 or 16 years. And almost that entire time, I’ve been looking at mainly procedures for better predicting turbulence – especially turbulence at commercial aircraft altitudes.

And – um – you know, we’ve developed several forecasting algorithms that are available publically now – and are used by some of the airlines.

And the idea is that with a better forecast of turbulence, they can avoid it.

We also work on better methods for detecting turbulence – either remotely or in-situ.

Tim Benjamin: What is air turbulence?

Dr Bob Sharman: Turbulence is basically bumpiness in-flight.

It’s caused by irregular air motions.

Tim Benjamin: So, to be clear, is it fair to say that air turbulence is simply caused by different bodies of air intermingling with each other – a bit like water in a stream kind of bouncing around rocks and pebbles for example?

Dr Bob Sharman: That’s actually a good analogy. That’s right.

If you look at a stream and you see that stream is smooth but then it flows over a rock. And the water motion becomes chaotic, then that’s turbulent.

And, actually, the same thing happens, to a degree, when air flows over mountains: you can’t see that little perturbation in the stream as you can in the water stream, but the same kind of thing is happening – it’s flowing over the mountains – and it starts to become ‘chaotic’ as it does so.

Tim Benjamin: It’s interesting – when people talk about turbulence, particularly nervous passengers, they often talk about their plane hitting so-called ‘air pockets’.

Is there such a thing as an ‘air pocket’?

Dr Bob Sharman: Well, I personally don’t like the term ‘air pocket’ because I’m not quite sure what it means.

It sounds like there’s this invisible vacuum out there that an airplane falls into – and who knows what’s going to happen to it.

Um – what’s REALLY happening is that once this turbulence is generated, part of the component of it is ‘up-draughts’ and ‘down-draughts’: vertical excursions of the air.

Tim Benjamin: In other words, some air moving up and some air moving down?

Dr Bob Sharman: That’s correct.

And so when an aircraft hits that, and the magnitude of those up-draughts and down-draughts are large enough, it may force the aircraft UP – or it may force the aircraft DOWN.

When it goes DOWN, I think that’s what a lot of people are referring to as ‘air pockets’.

But it’s simply the fact that the airplane hit some downward motion that it wasn’t expecting.

Tim Benjamin: So, just to be clear, when the plane is going down, it’s STILL supported by air? It’s NOT in free-fall?

Dr Bob Sharman: Oh – absolutely. There’s still lift on the wing, which I think you’ve talked about in other interviews.

And – uh – that lift of the wing is always MUCH more than the downward motion of the air that’s pushing it down.

So it’s NOT going to fall out of the sky.

Tim Benjamin: Are there different intensities of turbulence?

Dr Bob Sharman: There definitely are.

And – um – and usually they’re classified by pilots in certain ways, depending on how it affects the aircraft.

There’s actually several degrees that pilots describe turbulence intensity as fitting in to.

One is ‘light’ turbulence where there is just small, momentary, fluctuations. The passengers may not feel much of anything except a slight strain against the seat belt.

The next category up from that – where these up-drafts and down-drafts are larger – and the aircraft’s response is a little greater – is called ‘moderate’ turbulence.

Passengers feel strains against the seatbelts. Objects can be dislodged, slightly. But usually, as the intensity of the turbulence goes up, its lifetime DECREASES.

So that the STRONGER the turbulence event is, the SHORTER it is.

Tim Benjamin: Now when you say ‘shorter’, what do you mean?

Dr Bob Sharman: In terms of time.

Tim Benjamin: In other words, if I’m on a plane that’s going through what feels like quite intense turbulence, that period we spend in the turbulence is likely to be shorter than when we’re flying through light turbulence?

Dr Bob Sharman: That’s correct.

Yeah – the next category up that – I didn’t finish – was ‘severe’ turbulence: extreme jarring.

If you think of a coffee cup, the coffee cup’s probably spilling a lot of liquid at this point.

And there’s even an ‘extreme’ category where the aircraft is starting to be tossed around very violently. This is a VERY rare event, however.

Tim Benjamin: If you speak to people who hate turbulence, they’ll probably tell you that they’ve had quite a lot of experience of the two most violent forms of turbulence that you’ve just described.

Is that likely?

I mean, are these common, every day events?

Dr Bob Sharman: That’s what they remember. But I don’t think that they’re remembering the 98% of the flight that was smooth.

Turbulence is actually a rare event.

We have these special sensors on commercial aircraft that measure the turbulence all the time and report it back down to the ground so we can see it.

And 98% of the time, these flights are smooth: there’s no turbulence at all.

So, it is a VERY rare event.

And that other 2% is mostly in this ‘moderate’ category which is really not affecting the aircraft very much – but the people are feeling uncomfortable.

Tim Benjamin: To what extent does turbulence impact on the operation of an aircraft?

Dr Bob Sharman: If it’s strong enough, they will divert other aircraft from that area. It usually has to be VERY strong – in the ‘severe’ category – before they will do that.

Otherwise, pilots speak to one another in-flight and they tell them that this area that they just passed is, say, ‘moderate’ turbulence, and if other aircraft approaching that area can avoid it, by climbing or going around, they will.

Usually.

But that’s sort of an airline policy.

Because you see, to avoid turbulence, you have to change route.

That requires some amount of fuel.

Extra fuel.

And, sometimes, the airlines are not willing to make that trade-off.

Tim Benjamin: Like most frequent fliers, I’ve been on planes that have gone through turbulence. And I’ve often wondered – you know – if the pilot knew about this in advance, why are we still flying through it.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: Well, you know, often the pilot doesn’t know in advance. There might not be an aircraft on the same route giving reports of turbulence.

Or, oftentimes, if it’s ‘light’ turbulence, the airline and the pilot will make a decision just to continue on through.

But, operationally, one of the biggest issues with turbulence, really, is the fact that it impacts the service in the cabin.

You have flight attendants who are trying to provide drinks and food and be up and down the aisles doing things.

And it doesn’t take very much turbulence before providing that service has some difficulty.

You know, you’re coffee may be jostling a little bit on your tray.

And the airlines really don’t like that. They don’t like to have their passengers worried about whether the coffee is going to get in their lap.

Tim Benjamin: If you’re worried about turbulence, usually a bit of coffee in your lap is the LAST thing you’re worried about.

The REAL concern is that the plane’s going to fall apart.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: Well, it’s the coffee in the lap that sort of triggers the pilot to be trying to find a spot to get rid of the turbulence.

It’s not that they’re concerned about the safety of the aircraft or the passengers.

It’s they’re concerned about having the passengers be uncomfortable, the flight attendants not being able to perform their service very easily.

And so then they’ll start looking for a better altitude, a smoother altitude.

And they’ll go usually up or down to try to find a smoother altitude.

Tim Benjamin: So, just to be clear, when a plane encounters turbulence, the thing that’s on the mind of the pilots is really ‘how can we avoid coffee winding up in people’s laps?’ rather than ‘how do we stop the plane falling apart?’?

Dr Bruce Carmichael: Yeah – that’s absolutely right.

Dr Bob Sharman: Since I’ve been here – 15 or 16 years – and even going, probably back 20 years, I cannot recall a SINGLE aircraft going down – commercial aircraft going down – because of turbulence.

Some aircraft have been damaged.

But I’ve NEVER heard of one actually falling out of the sky.

Tim Benjamin: Well, on the subject of damage, what sort of damage are you talking about?

Dr Bob Sharman: Some damage is to the outside.

Some damage is to the inside.

Outside damage might be, part of a wing or something is torn loose.

It still doesn’t mean it can’t fly.

And it DOES fly.

There was an incident that I’m aware of where an aircraft took-off from Seoul, Korea – had a little bit of damage to the wing going out of the airport.

But they didn’t know that.

They flew all the way to San Francisco without incident – and then later saw the damage to the wing after it had landed.

So, that’s just to say that even with some external damage, the aircraft’s not going to fall out of the sky.

Tim Benjamin: When a plane is flown through turbulence, is there a need to do any kind of inspection on it after its landed?

Dr Bob Sharman: The rule is, if the pilot perceives that turbulence encountered to be in the ‘severe’ category, the rule is that, yes, they should take that aircraft out of service and have the mechanics do an inspection on it to make sure there’s no damage BEFORE they use that aircraft again.

Tim Benjamin: We’ve talked about what turbulence is. And we’ve talked about how it impacts on the performance of an aircraft.

Let’s just talk a bit about how pilots go about avoiding turbulence in the first place.

Can you walk me through that?

Dr Bob Sharman: That’s one of the reasons we are working on forecasting algorithms, so that the first thing the pilot could do is when he’s planning his route, is to avoid areas of forecasted turbulence.

Now – again – this has to be weighted against how far that’s going to take him away from his ORIGINAL planned route.

If he’s in-flight, then he has two options if he wants to avoid the turbulence.

He can either climb or descend, which is usually the most cost-effective and – actually – the better way of doing it because in the upper atmosphere, where these commercial aircraft fly, the depth of the turbulence zone is VERY narrow.

So, you don’t have to climb very far – or descend very far – to get out of the turbulence.

And I think you probably all noticed that in-flight.

So – look for what they call ‘smoother altitudes’.

As opposed to flying around a big patch.

Now, sometimes it’s, for example, a big thunderstorm.

The only way you could avoid that is to go around it.

But usually – if the air is clear – these turbulent patches are very thin in the vertical and so it’s just simpler – and more efficient – to climb or descend.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: If you ever have the opportunity to listen to the air traffic control pilot communications channel, which some of the airlines make available to the passengers, one of the things you’ll note is while the cruise flight is going on, almost the whole conversation between the pilot and the controller either involves passing the aircraft onto the next controller by changing frequency.

Or questioning ‘How’s the ride?’.

Or the pilot saying ‘I’m experiencing some light to moderate turbulence. Is there a better altitude?’.

And, so, in a sense – in today’s system – the controller and the pilot are very much talking to each other.

And, in fact, all the other pilots in that same air traffic control sector are talking on the same frequency.

So, it’s like a party line and they’re all listening to each other.

Tim Benjamin: Quite often I’ve stepped onto a plane and before we’ve taken off, the Captain’s come on to the public announcement system and said ‘Look – as soon as we get airborne, it’s going to be a bit bumpy for a few minutes’.

In that scenario, wouldn’t it be better – wouldn’t it be more comfortable – would it not be safer – just to say ‘Look, we’ll stay here on the ground and wait until the storm passes’?

Dr Bob Sharman: Yeah, but these airlines are operating at almost 100% capacity as it is.

So, if you start delaying traffic because of turbulence, pretty soon the backlog will be so large that you’ll never be able to recover from it.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: And the truth of the matter is that in terms of safety, if people are belted into their seats, and in more difficult cases, if the flight attendants are belted into their seats, everybody is secured.

And if the food and drink carts are secured, and not sitting in the middle of the aisle, then there’s really not much of a safety issue involved.

And you’ll see oftentimes the pilots get on the PA system and say to the flight attendants, ‘Please be seated’.

And the flight attendants will pretty quickly scramble and get into their jump-seats and belt in.

Tim Benjamin: Now that’s going to be the sign for a lot of nervous fliers to panic.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: Well, it’s just saying that it’s not safe to be walking up and down the aisle. We may hit a bump that will throw you down.

Or could injure you by bumping your head on something.

Or having something hit you.

So, it really is….passengers who are belted in are very rarely injured.

Dr Bob Sharman: Yeah – in fact, 97% of injuries that occur on an aircraft – on a commercial aircraft – are people that do NOT have their seatbelt on.

Tim Benjamin: Obviously, whenever you get on a commercial flight, you’re told over and over again to keep your belt on if you’re not walking around the cabin – even if there is NO turbulence.

But it’s quite rare for an announcement to explain WHY that’s so important.

Are you saying that when you hit turbulence, there’s a chance that people and things will start flying around the cabin?

Dr Bob Sharman: Right – or if you’re walking down the aisle, maybe that – even if it’s a little bump – it catches you off-guard and maybe you fall down or something and hurt yourself.

When I fly, I ALWAYS keep my seatbelt on.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: But this is really the danger.

The danger is the injury to the people in the aircraft who aren’t secured.

And, of course, the vulnerable people are those flight attendants because their job is to be up and around and doing things in the cabin.

And I’m always a little uncomfortable when it starts getting fairly bumpy and I see the flight attendants up and down the aisle collecting empty cups and trash.

And I’m thinking ‘If that were me, I’d rather be seated thank-you very much – with my seatbelt on’.

Dr Bob Sharman: Right – and there’s a statistic that supports that – and that is of the injuries that are reported every year, 40% of those injuries are flight attendants.

Tim Benjamin: 40%!!! Which is extraordinary because they’re not 40% of people who’re travelling on planes.

Dr Bob Sharman: That’s correct – they’re only like a few percent – 4% or so.

Tim Benjamin: Speak to someone who hates turbulence and they’ll SWEAR that the last time they were in a plane that hit turbulence, the plane was dropping like a rock – or dropping hundreds of meters per second.

What’s ACTUALLY happening to a plane when it’s going through turbulent air?

Dr Bob Sharman: Typically, when we look at accident data – by ‘accident’ I mean that someone was injured on the aircraft after a turbulence encounter – if you look at the VERTICAL motion of the aircraft – even if it’s a BIG event – that motion is only like 50 feet or so.

It’s not very much at all.

Tim Benjamin: So, how does a 50 foot drop FEEL so big?

Dr Bob Sharman: I don’t know – I think it’s just partly psychology.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: Of course, if you were 50 feet up in the air – 5 stories up in the air – and suddenly dropped toward the ground, that WOULD feel like a big drop.

Dr Bob Sharman: Personally, I’ve only experienced that twice – and I’ve flown over a MILLION miles.

So – again – I just have to emphasis that’s a REALLY rare event.

So if somebody experienced that, they were VERY unlucky.

Tim Benjamin: So, if I get on a plane today, and I hit some turbulence – which happens a lot – the chances that I’m actually going to drop 50 feet in one pop are slight?

Dr Bob Sharman: Yeah – I would say that’s something in the order of a one-in-a-million chance.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: We’re also looking at advanced design aircraft that will be coming into the market place that will have look-ahead sensors that can see a short distance in front of the aircraft.

And will be able to moderate the aircraft behaviour as it enters an area of turbulence.

So that the aircraft itself will help dampen some of the turbulence.

Tim Benjamin: And when are we going to see those technologies start to come on-stream?

Dr Bruce Carmichael: Actually, you already ARE seeing some of that technology with the new Boeing 787.

One of the things that’s happening right now as we speak is that Delta Airlines is actually flying trials where they’re using our turbulence detection algorithms to get turbulence from the aircraft to the ground.

And thus be integrated in with the forecast information that’s sent to the cockpit on iPads where the pilots can actually get a good 4-dimensional view of turbulence around them.

And help them make better decisions.

So, I think that’s the future of turbulence avoidance is with the pilots in the cockpit in real time to be able to see on something like an iPad – which they call an Electronic Flight Bag – to actually see in real time the turbulence environment that they’re flying through.

Tim Benjamin: This has been a really fascinating conversation. All that’s left, really, for me to do is to thank both of you: Dr Bruce Carmichael and Dr Bob Sharman for joining me on the Fear of Flying School podcast.

Gentlemen, thanks for coming.

And thanks for joining me.

Dr Bob Sharman: Our pleasure – thank you.

Dr Bruce Carmichael: Enjoyed it.

[ENDS]

Your thoughts on air turbulence…

As you know, people respond differently to turbulence. Even those who have a fear of flying aren’t always troubled by it (for some reason I never was). Tell me in the comments how YOU feel about it.

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31 comments

This podcast REALLY helped me. I’ve been through a few awful experiences with turbulence (flew through a thunderstorm and flew on a plane that dropped at takeoff) and hearing them speak about it was eye-opening for me. Appreciate it!

Wow! I’ve always been afraid of flying and when we hit the turbulence i feel we are going to crash. Not a nice feeling. This podcast was extremely beneficial. Thank you. I’ll put it to the test in 10 days !!

First of all, thank you so so much to be invested in helping people like me… It is so kind of you! Turbulence always triggers the worst in me… I really feel near a panic or heart attack… I almost choke as my breathing becomes almost non existent….I also feel like crying because I realise how terrible my fear is and how I am so close to just stop flying for good! I also cry because I do not want to transmit this fear to my child and because I live in London but I am from Lisbon… I have reduced my visits to almost zero…. And I absolutely feel that we are about to fall out of the sky and die a painful death…… I used to live in India and it was ok then to do those long hours… Now I am just a mess… Really depressed……

I used to love flying. Once, I’ve even did a loop-the-loop in a Cessna to raise money for Cancer Research. Then one day, severe turbulence between Geneva and Zurich switched a trigger in my mind.

I had to start taking drugs from the psychologist just to get on a plane. That was 13 years ago.

About 5 years ago, I started to go without any drugs. But I still feel that heightened sensitivity to movement (that I never even noticed before) that most fearful flyers experience.

Last week coming back from London to Istanbul, we hit a few nasty bumps. But having listened to this podcast, I now realize that the big bumps don’t last long. In fact, thinking back to last week, I remember the big bumps were indeed short.

I am feeling a bit more prepared for my flight from Istanbul to London tomorrow and London back to Istanbul on Friday – two flights in two days.

I also experienced a couple of flights with really significant turbulence, because we had to land in the middle of thunderstorms (Mexico City, Philadelphia). In both cases, passengers were screaming and throwing up, and it seemed to go on for a really long time (until they got the plane on the ground). Now, even the slightest turbulence triggers all kinds of physical responses. You say no plane has ever crashed as a result of turbulence. What about the Air France flight that hit thunderstorms out of Brazil, in 2009, or the AirAsia flight to Singapore, in 2014. Both planes went down in thunderstorms. Not trying to be a know-it-all; I just think that the podcast is more believable for nervous flyers if it acknowledges the rare instances when turbulence does signal a dangerous situation.

The point they were making is that turbulence has not caused a plane to break-up while flying.

Regarding the Air France flight, the final report into the accident suggested that several problems combined to cause the aircraft to crash. These problems emerged following a malfunction of the pitot tubes that aircraft use to measure air speed. You’ll find more details here.

Meanwhile, the final report into the cause of the Air Asia crash is due to be published in August 2015. More details here.

Even reading the article my chest started tightening. I know it is irrational, I know planes don’t just drop out of the sky and that it’s safer than a car journey, but there is something about not being in control and not being informed at the time that makes me the crying lady in the corner on flights. I used to fly A LOT, but hate it now. I have experienced severe once, but it doesn’t matter how light it is, a feel the panic rising.

I am trying to read more about it so that logically I can try and work it through. Meds aren’t really an option as I travel with young children and am responsible for them. Perhaps that is part of the problem.

I’m getting ready to fly across the country by myself. My husband and I enjoy traveling and do it quite often but I am so fearful of flying that when I drive past our local airport twice a day, to and from work, I experience severe anxiety. I’ve experienced very bad turbulence twice, once coming from Puerto Rico and once from the Bahamas. My fear is the anticipation of something occurring, like bad turbulence or something worse. This helped allay some of those fears.

Reading this podcast is so useful. I used to fly frequently. But I experienced turbulence once and this has reduced my flying to zero, and yet my work requires me to fly. Am thinking of changing jobs. Like previous comments, my anxiety levels are so high that even hearing a plane fly over, creates deep panic and fear. But knowledge is key, thanks for sharing this information.

Knowledge is power. Very interesting, educative, informative, refreshing and reassuring discussion. It has actually allayed my fears that flight turbulence are often disastrous. I am better informed now.

Thank you for this article. Despite already flying 4 times this year I’m getting incredibly anxious about the prospect of flying again on Friday (for a measley 2h10m, no less…) and this really helped me realise that I’ve only ever experienced ‘light’ turbulence and that that feeling of your stomach falling out when you drop a bit doesn’t mean I’m going to die a fiery death. I’m going to just keep all of this in mind and try to start to be excited about the prospect of 2 weeks travelling through Italy.

Literally just got off a plane from Crete to Leeds, UK. Actually cried because of the (what I now know was ‘moderate’) turbulence. Told hubby we were never flying again even though we’d just had an amazing holiday! Also on descent, I got THE most awful stabbing pain which went from my left eye up to my left forehead, I have never felt anything like it (just the painful ears, sweet sucking time!). Blood clot in the brain? Burst eyeball? The most horrific thoughts, luckily the steward explained it was common and to hold my nose etc.. the pain eased right away (but still a little pain remains). Sooo, all in all I WAS actually going to die on this flight. THANK YOU for this article which I have just devoured, savoured, shared & bookmarked. I will be reading it every time I fly from now on. Every question I had was asked & answered, bravo! (P.S, Googled the brain pain, that’s common too) 🙂

The fear of flying is one I developed when I reached my late 30’s. Never hated it before. I realized the fear was baseless and read many tips online on how to get over it. It worked! I still get a bit anxious, but I feel so free again. I never actually stopped flying, but was convinced I was going to die each time I got on a plane. Turbulence was an issue for me. Any small bump and my palms became sweaty, I felt hot, and would even start to shake a little. What helped me? I read once that it is human nature to feel the downward motion more. The fear of falling. The article said to pay attention during turbulence, feel the downward motion but more importantly, feel the upward motion. You then do feel like the gentleman here said, that you are just on a bumpy road.

I used to love flying but, couple years ago we hit severe turbulence and all changed. 2 days ago we came back from VAR to LGW and flight was OK – but LGW to VAR i get panic attack(sweat , short of breath [heart problems] etc.). Before I was aware that it’s more mind thing and ‘drops’ are low but still I was terrified when ‘moderate’ like 30-40min (for me) turbulence happened (near Bermudas…). Usually my flights are 2-4h around EU in mornings so I don’t care about it. This article really helped me and I hope my next holiday flight will be much better than the last one – or it’ll be time to buy sleeping pills 🙂

Thank you thank you thank you!! Only 50 feet if it’s really bad? That’s nothing. You guys just made me feel a million times better. Feels like every time I fly I have a worse experience and more anxiety than the previous time. Hopefully this knowledge will help me be logical when I’m on the flight and chill out. Love you guys, seriously.

I loved to fly on airplanes when I was a teenager. But one incident screwed all of it. I heard the sound of thunderstorm inside the aircraft as it was trying to avoid it before landing. That night I thought we were not going to make it. But the pilot did a very good job of landing the aircraft in heavy rainfall.

Now I am always anxious before flights regardless of how much literature i have read and how many videos that i have seen.

But one thing did help me. The last time I flew I told my co passenger sitting next to me about my anxiety. To my surprise he told me that he worked for the airline and I do not need to worry. The pilots spend a lot of time in training and they are well trained.

What I am trying to suggest is that once I confided about my fear of flying in my co passenger I actually felt relieved!

Hate everything about flying from the moment I step on the plane from the small confined space to the little round windows and that’s without turbulence thrown in.Trying to get over my fear but feel like screaming most of the time.

Man oh man. I am that woman huddled up in her seat crying whenever turbulence strikes. I feel bad for my seat companions, lol. Watching movies, playing games, and listening to music do not help me. I used to always think, “What are the pilots thinking right now? Are they freaking out, too?!” I’m glad to know they’re more concerned about spilling hot coffee.

I’m absolutely terrified of flying due to the last time I flew because I actually experienced that big drop they spoke about. Now knowing that’s a rare event and how turbulence actually works I feel a lot better about my future flights.

25years ago I was flying from Florida to Atlanta Georgia and then onto Dublin , however there had been a hurricane previous days and after winds were strong, in my words we were threw about the sky something shocking and a male passenger beside me whom I didn’t know I grabbed his hand , he explained he was a frequent flyer but this was an odd frightening experience for him also, the next time I flew I was a wreck, and worried about the whole two weeks off my holiday flying home because every small bump we where going to fall from the sky I’m my mind, I ended up down the back with the air hostesses reassuring me, unfortunately that was September 11th, I was in Portugal and haven’t flown since, I’ve booked Bulgaria and fly in 3weeks time, my anxiety has already set in , reading your comments I hope I can take on board that turbulence is safe enough and don’t let my severe panic override that, thank you for advice, just hope I can carry threw